NEIL SPRINGER, Special to the QMI AGENCY

Nogueira, who coaches dos Santos, had his arm snapped by Mir after refusing to submit to a kimura at UFC 140 last December. However, the UFC heavyweight champion has since downplayed his mentor’s loss, claiming he isn’t out for revenge in his coming title defence against Mir.

“I think he really does try to downplay it verbally,” Mir told QMI Agency. “I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing, but Nogueira and some of the other fighters, they do that. They sit there and they go, ‘Well, I was sick, I was tired, I was under hypnosis’ — whatever it may be — to take away from their opponents. I don’t know if they do it intentionally. With that thought in mind, well, you realize you’re taking away from my victory by making these comments.

“I think he just kind of follows suit on Nogueira. Nogueira’s comments after the fight weren’t that I did a great job covering, avoiding the submission and coming out on top, but that he gave it away, made a mistake and fell and broke his own arm, I guess.

“So dos Santos might verbally try to distance himself from it, but trust me, it’s in his mind. When he sleeps at night, he thinks about it. There’s no way he doesn’t.”

Nogueira isn’t the first Brazilian fighter to chose injury over a bruised ego. At PRIDE 8 in 1999, Kazushi Sakuraba was moments away from breaking Royler Gracie’s arm when the referee stopped the fight. He then snapped Renzo Gracie’s limb nine months later. More recently, Patricky (Pitbull) Freire had his arm mangled by Lloyd Woodard at Bellator 62 last month.

“I think they have a certain mindset where they can’t be beaten at their own game by somebody who’s not Brazilian,” Mir said. “That’s the only way I can perceive it. That’s at least how it looks to me. Myself, not being a Brazilian, I don’t understand it.

“Not tapping to a choke, I kind of get that, and I don’t know if I would necessarily tap. You go to sleep, they’re going to wake you up, there’s no damage done. But not tapping to a submission hold? I’ve had broken bones before and I realize you fight to the last second, but once you know that it’s over with, it’s like, ‘Well, I’ve lost the fight anyways. Either I can go home in a cast and not train for eight weeks or I can acknowledge I was beat.’

“You’ve already been beaten by the move. Not tapping isn’t going to change anything.”

Though dos Santos is a BJJ brown belt, Mir doesn’t expect him to be as stubborn when the two headline UFC 146 in Las Vegas on May 26. After all, dos Santos’ first love is boxing, not grappling.

“I don’t think he’s under the same mindset as Nogueira,” Mir said. “Junior, he’s 27 now, a relatively young guy ... if he were to get caught in something by me and tap, it’s not the biggest loss of honour. I didn’t beat him at boxing, I beat him with jiu jitsu. I beat Nogueira, his coach. If I tap him with something, I don’t think there’s any honour lost and his limb is still able to operate the right way. He can come back and work his way up to a second fight. There’s still a future.

“So that being said, I would say in his mindset, if he feels the pressure and he knows it’s going to (break), not that he won’t fight until the last second, but I think he’d be smarter and I would applaud him if he would just tap. Obviously I’m going to keep applying pressure until he taps, or the referee is forced to come stop the fight because damage has been done.”

Widely considered the best boxer in the UFC heavyweight division, dos Santos has won 10 of his 14 professional fights with knockouts. But that doesn’t mean Mir hasn’t spotted a few openings he feels he can exploit.

“Pure boxing is not going to work in MMA because with the stance, (boxers) don’t have to worry about getting kicked in the leg, or somebody trying to clinch and take them down,” Mir said. “So, obviously, there’s going to be slight variations. But as far as what (critics are) seeing, like how when he throws an uppercut he lifts his chin up in the air, I don’t see that being an adaptation towards MMA. I see that as a mistake being made.

“But he is such a great athlete as far as his speed and power, it sometimes makes up for a lack of technique in a certain area.

“I think he has good technique, but what puts him over the edge is his athletic abilities. Let’s put it this way, if I took away his speed and he was just as fast as everybody else, would he be as good of a boxer?”

CHART

Junior dos Santos defends the heavyweight title against Frank Mir at UFC 146 in Las Vegas May 26. They have three common opponents.

SHANE CARWIN

UD loss to JDS

KO win over Mir

ROY NELSON

UD loss to JDS

UD loss to Mir

CRO COP

Submission loss to JDS

KO loss to Mir

FEDOR’S FINAL FIGHT

Fedor Emelianenko has his eyes on retirement.

The former PRIDE heavyweight champion recently hinted that his coming fight with Pedro Rizzo may be his last.

“I think it’s time to call it a day,” Emelianenko told Russian news outlet RIA Novosti. “This fight may be my last one.

“I have been learning from Pedro’s fights and have a lot of respect for him. He is a fighter of a great maturity, beating many of the strongest.”

Emelianenko meets Rizzo under the M-1 Global banner in St. Petersburg on June 21.

The bout marks his third since his stint in Strikeforce, where he went 1-3, suffering losses to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson. He has since put together a two-bout win streak with victories over Jeff Monson and Satoshi Ishii.

The two engaged in one of the most important fights in UFC history at The Ultimate Fighter 1 finale more than seven years ago. The back-and-forth war attracted a whole new set of eyeballs to mixed martial arts and is partly responsible for the popularity the UFC continues to enjoy today.

After 15 gritty minutes of fighting, Griffin was awarded a unanimous decision and fans demanded an immediate rematch.

They got it 16 months later at UFC 62 and it sucked, due in large part to Bonnar being banged up before even entering the cage. Griffin won yet another unanimous decision and many thought the book was closed on their rivalry.

During a recent appearance on MMAJunkie Radio, Bonnar urged fans to pester UFC president Dana White until he agrees to let the two fight for a third time.

“Everyone out there please harass Dana White on Twitter to let me and Forrest coach the next season (of TUF),” Bonnar said. “If he does that, I can guarantee a barn-burning slugfest.

“I won’t go for any takedowns. I won’t block any punches. I’ll just be moving forward. I’m serious, I would just go and slug it out and try to top our first one. What the hell do I have to lose? I want to give the fans a good one.”

Jung snagged both best fight and submission, netting him a cool $80,000. Poirier was rewarded for his part in the fight-of-the-year candidate.

In only three UFC appearances, Jung has won four award bonuses, totalling $210,000.

In his promotional debut, he landed the only twister submission in UFC history against Leonard Garcia at Fight Night on Mar. 26, 2011. He then followed it up with a 6.26-second knockout victory over Mark Hominick at UFC 140 in Toronto last December.

POKRAJAC CAN’T BEAT KOREAN ZOMBIE

He isn’t even in the same weight class, but Igor Pokrajac has been bested twice by Chan Sung (Korean Zombie) Jung.

At UFC 140 in Toronto last December, the Croatian light-heavyweight was sure he had knockout of the night honours wrapped up after finishing Krzysztof Soszynski in only 35 seconds. But moments later Jung snatched the award away, dispatching Mark Hominick in 6.26 seconds.

At UFC on FUEL TV 3 Tuesday, Pokrajac won an exciting unanimous decision over Fabio Maldonado. Though felt he had staked his claim for fight of the night, the Korean featherweight responded by engaging in a fight of the year candidate with Dustin Poirier.

“I hope I won’t fight with Chan Sung again on the same card,” Pokrajac joked at the UFC on FUEL TV 3 post-fight press conference. “Two times, you know? Unbelievable.

“He’s a good fighter. He had a good fight. Congratulations on the submission (of the night) and the fight of the night.”

MACDONALD NOT DONE?

Jason (The Athlete) MacDonald may not be retiring after all.

“To set record straight, (MacDonald) never said he’s retiring,” officials stated via the UFC Canada Twitter account. “Tough break last night. Hope to see him back soon.”

The Red Deer, Alta. middleweight dropped his second straight fight, suffering a 50-second knockout loss to Tom Lawlor at UFC on FUEL TV 3 in Fairfax, Va. on Tuesday. The bout earned Lawlor knockout of the night honours and $40,000 in bonus money.

Prior to the fight, MacDonald expressed his desire to have a retirement match at UFC 149 in Calgary on July 21 should he beat Lawlor.

However, after suffering a KO loss, MacDonald’s medical suspension will likely derail that goal.